Parenting

Parents, How Are Our Spiritual Lives Affecting Our Children?

Are you aware that when we as parents fail to heed God’s Word, it affects our children?

Hosea 4:6 . . .  You have forgotten the teachings of your God, so I will forget your children.

This may not sound quite fair of our loving God, but God knows what is best for us and our children and He wants us to desire Him above all, if only for our children’s sakes.

Deuteronomy 5:29 “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be will with them, and with their children for ever!”

Feel God’s agonizing to get people to obey His Word because He knows it is for their good and the good of their children.

Catherine Marshall in her book, Something More,  writes, “We are accustomed to the idea that we pass on to our children a physical inheritance – color of eyes, color of hair, even certain diseases: tendencies toward gout, diabetes, certain skin diseases. Handing down a material inheritance is such standard practice that the laws of every country make careful provisions governing wills, probate, death, and inheritance taxes.  It soon became apparent that just as we can inherit either a fortune or debts, so in the spiritual realm we can inherit either spiritual blessings or those liabilities (unabashedly called ‘sins’ in scripture) that hinder our development into mature persons.  These blessings do not come to us solely by heredity.  Obviously they are also passed on by example and by teaching – conscious or unconscious.”

Andrew Murray in How to Raise Your Children for Christ wrote: “Education consists not so much in what we do or say but most of all in what we are; and that not only when our children are of an age to see and judge but long before, even before their birth.”

Seeing how we so affect our children’s lives, we should take inventory of our spiritual lives:

1.  Have I accepted Christ as Savior of your life?

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

2.  Am I confessing known sin daily?

Psalm 19:12:  “…cleanse thou me from secret faults.”

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

I John 1:9:  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

3.  Do I value God’s Word in my life?

Job 23:12
I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

4.  Am I spending time alone with God in prayer?

Mark 1:35:  “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He (Jesus) went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” (If this were important in Jesus’ life, how much important is it for us?)

5.  Am I letting the peace of God rule in my heart when everything around me is not peaceful?

Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Let’s take the time to read while we have been this opportunity to stay home.  I highly recommend the two books linked to above to help you see how important your relationship with God is in the life of your child.

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Glad Dad Day

In I Chronicles 29:19 King David prayed for his son, “And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep your commandments, testimonies, and your statutes, and to do all these things, and to build a palace, for which I have made provision.

Then in 1 Kings 5:3-5 Solomon begins the task of building the temple, “You know how my father David could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars which were fought against him on every side, until the Lord put his foes under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor evil occurrence. And behold, I propose to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to my father David, saying, “Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he shall build the house for My name.”

King David had a desire to build the temple for the Lord to dwell in.  However he was not able to build it because of wars surrounding him.  So he made preparation for his son Solomon to build it.  Solomon was glad to carry out this desire his dad had.  Solomon spent 7 years building the temple for the Lord.  This made his dad glad!!

Just as David made preparation for Solomon to build the temple for God to dwell in, fathers are to make provision for their children to build a temple. I Corinthians 3:16 points out that God desires to live in us now, “Don’t you know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Then children are to take the provision of instruction and training in the Word from their fathers and build their lives to be a dwelling place for God.  This should make a glad dad (3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in Truth.)

Make your dad glad by walking in Truth.  Make your children’s dad glad by leading them to walk in Truth!

 

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God’s View of Life in the Womb

 

Andrew Murray in his book, How To Raise Your Children for Christ, refers to the nine months of pregnancy as a ‘holy time of mystery when mother and child are one’. Ecclesiastes 11:5 affirms that holy mystery, “You do not know how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything”.  Nourishing a little life growing within us is the greatest privilege God gives to women.  God is very clear in scripture about how much He values that special time in the womb.

One example is in Judges 13, Manoah was told he and his wife were going to have a son (Samson).  He enquired of God as to how to order the child.

Judges 13:12-14 “And Manoah said, Now let your words come to pass.  How shall we order the child and how shall we do unto him?  And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that command her let her observe.”

Possibly Manoah was looking for instructions on how to care for the child or how to disciple him after he was born which is usually what concerns a parent-to-be.  But God’s plan was to begin right then and the child was not even conceived yet.  God wanted the child to be a Nazarite from the womb which meant he wanted Samson set apart for Him from the beginning.  The only instructions given to Manoah concerned what went into the mother’s body when the mother was pregnant.  How important it was to God that the mother nourish that life within her!

There are so many other references all through the Bible demonstrating God’s value of life from the very beginning in the womb:

 

He takes great care to form us physically in the womb while He formulates a plan for every moment of our lives.

Psalm 139:13-16 (God’s prenatal care) You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.   Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

 

He is the one who not only forms us in the womb but the one who takes us out of the womb.

Psalm 71:6   By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You.

 

He calls us by name from our mother’s womb.

Isaiah 49:1:”The Lord has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.”

 

He teaches us wisdom in the womb.

Psalm 51:6  But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.

 

He forms and sets apart with a purpose while still in the womb.

Jeremiah 1:5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.”

 

He fills with His Spirit while in the womb.

The forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist, was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb according to Luke 1:15: “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.”

 

As you can see, God works in the womb.  An interesting fact is there are nine months of pregnancy and there are nine fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Could that be a coincidence? Regardless, a great way to spend those months while baby is being nourished physically from the mother’s body, is to meditate on a different fruit each month, nourishing the mother and baby spiritually.

 

God had a special plan for Samson from the womb just as He does for each person.  We are all special to Him and He has a purpose for each of us from the very moment He places us in our mother’s womb!

 

 

 

 

 

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It’s time to get outside in God’s beautiful world!

“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
Nehemiah 9:6

I love all the seasons, but especially the warmer ones.  I am looking forward to spending lots of time outside.  As you experience the beauty of God’s creation during this season, please remember to share with your children that it IS God’s creation.  Lead them to praise Him. Make up songs about it.  Here’s one suggestion:

https://youtu.be/AbWgeJOMQ4U

Hopefully you will get to take a family trip this summer, maybe to the beach to get sand between your toes. To The Sea by Callie Grant is a book about a day at the beach that young children will enjoy.  The pictures by Jeremy Tugeau make you almost able to smell the sea air. (The author’s mission is to encourage and equip parents to effectively teach their kids about God and His creation, even at a very young age.) (Check out some of her other books on this site here.) In the book the sand castle is washed away by the sea, but the boy builds one on a rock and it stands safe. Play in the sand and tell this parable from Matthew 7:24-29.

Even if you can’t get away this summer, take advantage of every opportunity around you to enjoy God’s beautiful world with your children.  Jesus used visuals from nature as he taught.
Read Matthew 6:25-33 and be ready to share His teachings the next time you are outside observing birds or looking at flowers.

Hike, explore, play in the sand. Start collecting things from nature – moss, feathers, shells, rocks, leaves, seeds, an abandoned bird’s nest or wasp nest.  Make a nature box full of items you can enjoy all year.  And don’t forget to point out that all God’s creation praise Him!

All your works praise you, LORD; your faithful people extol you.
Psalm 145:10

Nature Box
Nature Box

Side Note: Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says to speak of God and His word as we go.  Everything doesn’t have to be related to a Bible verse, but as you discover things on your nature walk you could say, “Think of the wonders of God” (Job 37:14) or “all God’s works praise Him” (Psalm 145:10)

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Give thanks in all circumstances, not just on good days!

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I believe that parents can begin even in the womb to establish God’s Word in their children (From the Womb to the Tomb).  We all hope to have a preventative role with our children rather than a recovery role. But there are no guarantees that they will make all the right choices even when we have laid a firm foundation in the Lord.  We just have to be there to pick them up when they fall (no matter what age they are) and continue to love, pray for, and encourage them in the Way they should go.

Parenting is difficult, demanding, and at times discouraging when all our hard work seems less than enough to guard our children from making detrimental choices. We get tired, disheartened, and disgruntled with the Lord at times.  But God continues to love us and to teach us through it all.

A few weeks ago my friend Lisa shared with me briefly how God is leading her in this journey.  I asked her  to share some of her story in hopes that other moms will be encouraged.

“Recently I’ve read the book Power in Praise and it has really changed the way I view my circumstances.  You see, I have two children who have been caught up in addiction for many years, and I have begged and begged my Lord to remove this from their lives.  I’ve also spent a lot of time grumbling and murmuring and feeling sorry for myself.  But never once have I thanked Him for it. 

One afternoon reading and having my quiet time, it hit me like a bolt of lightening –  what if we’ve been stuck in this valley not because of the addiction, but because of me!!  That’s why the Israelites wondered for 40 years.

Today I choose to thank God for the addiction and for the wonderful men my boys will become because of it.  I also thank Him for the growth my husband and I have already experienced.  

1Thessalonians 5:18 tells us to give thanks in all circumstances, not just on good days!

On a side note, one son has three months clean and the other son continues to keep getting back up! YAY GOD!”

Lisa would be glad to talk with anyone going through similar problems with their children.  You can contact her at: lisa.giddens@yahoo.com  We must encourage each other (1 Thessalonians 4:18)

If you want to read more words of encouragement, check out the other blog posts on this site for hurting parents:  http://www.trainupthechild.org/?s=help+for+Hurting+Parents

There was a time when Billy and Ruth Graham were hurting parents because of their son Franklin.  God brought them and Franklin through the trying years and we have seen Franklin become such a man of God, just like his dad. Check out his autobiography Rebel With A Cause.

Parents, be encouraged, thank the Lord for the struggles, and don’t grow weary in well doing. 

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
Colossians 4:2

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good.
At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
Galatians 6:9

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